1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to razor systems having a plurality of apertures and methods of manufacturing such razor systems using non-grinding sharpening techniques.
2. Description of Related Art
Efforts to improve wet shave quality have been on-going for many years. Among the avenues for improvement that have been explored are the actual blade and cutting edge design. To this end, razors have been developed with cutting edges which are not straight, as with most traditional blades, but are circular or otherwise rounded apertures located within the body of the blade. Such systems offer the advantage of allowing the user to shave in multiple directions, as opposed to the single direction of most blades. Examples of blades having circular apertures include U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,983, issued to Simms et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,329, issued to Chylinski et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,068, issued to Clifford. While the dimensions and shape of the actual apertures vary throughout the examples, the methods for producing the apertures in these examples remain virtually the same. The common method for producing the apertures is the traditional grinding method for sharpening blades which requires substantial part manipulation and is sometimes combined with an additional deburring step. Consequently, the manufacture and blade structure of razors having apertures are constrained by the limitations of traditional razor grinding.
It would be advantageous to provide a method for manufacturing razor blades having a plurality of sharpened apertures which does not employ traditional grinding and deburring steps, but instead utilizes more efficient and flexible hole-producing and edge sharpening technology. Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a method for producing razor blades having cutting edge apertures which do not utilize the traditional grinding techniques. It is a further objective of the invention to utilize electrochemical machining, electrical discharge machining, electrolytic machining, laser-beam machining, electron-beam machining, photochemical machining, ultrasonic machining, and other non-traditional methods to form cutting edge apertures in razor blades. Accordingly, the structure and design of the cutting edge apertures are not limited to the shapes, sizes, and locations amenable to grinding.